So, the positive thing is that it does kinda look like an F-16 from a distance (of about 500 yards) and the colorscheme is reasonably accurate. That's about it.

Onto the bad: The decals are of a terrible quality and the larger ones actually cracked as soon as they got wet no matter what I tried, resulting in some very careful attempts at aligning the parts and hoping nothing else flaked off. I didn't even use decal softener because that'd probably just kill them completely. Some of them aren't even the correct size. Printing quality and coverage looks like a mid-90s HP Deskjet printer. The overall kit has fitting issues in virtually every part requiring trimming, sanding and filling, the panel lining seems to be more of a suggestion than anything else, there's parts included for a two-seater configuration but no instrument panels or control sticks whatsoever, there's ejector pin markings in the worst places, the canopy lacks any sort of detail and is thick as hell, the decal instructions and the decal sheet numbering are only similar in that they both use integers below 1000 and the instructions contain details not even present on the kit itself.

So yeah, terrible. Don't buy unless you enjoy pain. Don't buy even if you enjoy pain. And considering the quality of the decals in this version, I'm glad I wasn't curious enough to buy this version as I've built the Revell release and casual searching shows that the Spitfire decal on this one is one huge piece as well.

Time to move on to something better, but I'll figure out what that is tomorrow.

I got a chance to start detailing and panel-lining the RX-78-2. It’s the 2001 release, rather than the 2015 release, because my brain don’t remember so good. The main differences are that the 2001 is a little more anime accurate, and has less detail and somewhat worse articulation, iirc. I’ll make sure to look it up later when I have a chance.

I’ll finish off the leg and feet panel lining when I start assembly, but I find it easier to do fine detail when parts are on the runner. Hopefully there aren’t any loose parts in crucial areas on this build, because I forgot that I don’t have clear coat or model cement. But I can always apply a topcoat later on, and I want to get some more practice in on building these because it’s been a long time since I’ve done any model building on a regular basis.

I’ve built but haven’t finished the Momokapool mostly as I am working on Warhammer 40k stuffs in what little hobby time I have. Some scenery too. Both ready build kits new and old, and some Tamiya stuff. Sadly the latter can be a pain. The instructions for these tank traps suuuuuuck. It’s 3 beams and 2 triangle thingies but I can’t suss it out.

For tiny details I tend to use either my thinnest brushes, or if those are too thick a toothpick can do the trick as well. Really depends on the layout of the part though, as it's mostly cockpits and dashboards where this is needed. Another method I sometimes use is paint the details first, then being careful when painting the surrounding area (again with a thin brush), or with raised details just using a brush lightly covered in paint and being careful not to get too close to the surface.

It was the gold v on the waist that gave me so much trouble. It could have come out better with regards to sprue marks, but it’s all right for a first effort after over a decade of not building anything.

Also, whoever at 2001 Bandai decides that the eye decal needed to be two separate pieces needs to be smacked on the head. I painted the red cameras on its head by hand because applying tiny stickers sucks, and painting looks better and is easier.

I'm pretty sure the sticker bit is with the reasoning that it has to be easy to build for those who don't paint their kits, and that era of Bandai did have a thing with tiny stickers in my experience. That part of my collection still remains in storage until I finally have some place to put it all, and when I do I'll go over all of them and see if I can't replace the stickering with actual paint wherever possible. I've got almost every single item in that line. The toothpick method works there too by the way.

I'm pretty sure the sticker bit is with the reasoning that it has to be easy to build for those who don't paint their kits, and that era of Bandai did have a thing with tiny stickers in my experience. That part of my collection still remains in storage until I finally have some place to put it all, and when I do I'll go over all of them and see if I can't replace the stickering with actual paint wherever possible. I've got almost every single item in that line. The toothpick method works there too by the way.

Yeah, though it also does tend to rely on the era and complexity of the kit. I picked up the 1/144 HG Throne Gundam Zwei - about a ten year old kit - and to my dismay discovered half the sword is molded in the tan color instead of white like it should be, all for the sake of ensuring the little mounting socket (which it uses to attach to the shoulder) is the right color. And then there's the 1988 Zeta Plus C1 (a reprint of the kit) which has some mind-boggingly silly color choices like the entire feet being molded in blue just for the trim when they're supposed to be two-tone gray.

I'm pretty sure the sticker bit is with the reasoning that it has to be easy to build for those who don't paint their kits, and that era of Bandai did have a thing with tiny stickers in my experience. That part of my collection still remains in storage until I finally have some place to put it all, and when I do I'll go over all of them and see if I can't replace the stickering with actual paint wherever possible. I've got almost every single item in that line. The toothpick method works there too by the way.

Tiny stickers are the bane of my existence. I still remember how I’d drop one from my tweezers and end up with it stuck to the palm of my hand or something when I was building the old Gundam kits way back when.

Still need to put decals on the battery, and getting to this point has been a minor annoyance at some parts as the fit is pretty dang tight (Just like in a real VW thanks to superior German engineering). The result so far is pretty neat though. I also discovered that one of the paints that needs to be mixed up can be replaced with a color directly available in Revell's range without issues other than glossiness. As quite a bit of details rely on that mix, it'll make it a little easier and won't require as much mixing.

EDIT: Because I am a glutton for punishment I've picked up a third MisterCraft kit, this time covering a civil airplane. As it turns out there's at least two different boxings as mine only includes half the decals(with some minor printing issues) but I've seen reviews that had them all. This one actually has a label of the original, now defunct, manufacturer on the bottom of the included stand. It looks to be a bit better than the previous two, but not by much.

I hate doubleposting, but today I have to. I sent in a service request to MisterCraft through their website when I got this kit, and today I got a nice big envelope with a new decal sheet: Not only is this one perfectly in register, but it's also the complete one with all four options. On a second look I also understated the "minor printing issues" now that I have the new one: The decals and carrier film were quite out of register and smaller details were blobby as hell. I'd have liked at least some acknowledgement of my request beforehand though, as this came as a bit of a (pleasant) surprise.

Golf is proceeding as planned. The body, interior and bottom are now done, and it's time for the final stretch. The main thing with building scale model cars is that a lot of time goes into painting before assembly, followed by more painting after assembly. As a result, you spend quite a lot of time between building steps just preparing for the next step. Along with that, the paint instructions for this kit were outright wrong in a few bits so I had to check some reference materials to ensure that I was doing the right thing.

Right now I also have to finish deciding if I want an open or a closed top, I'm leaning more towards open top at the moment to show more of the interior.

I ended up making the open-top version as that's how I've seen them in real life most often. The end result is pretty nice and looks very close to a real Golf I Cabriolet. It's a pretty fun build too, but there are some parts where you'll have to look twice and fit before gluing everything down, or where the order is a bit misleading. I also ended up using reference pictures of the real thing since the instructions had actual mistakes in color callouts and detailing in a few parts. Decalling went pretty well, even if it was a bit annoying laying down large strips of chrome detailing. I did make a screwup with the license plates, originally I planned on using the Dutch ones but I discovered that I put one on upsidedown, and the other one got damaged while putting everything in place so I had to remove those and put on the Belgian ones.

Overall, recommended if you're a fan of the car itself, and even if you're not but you like th elook. There's two GTIversions also available that use the same base but obviously a different body and some other different parts. Just be careful that you don't buy Revell's Golf 2 as apparently that's a fairly dreadful kit. On the other hand, it does warn you beforehand on the box that it's a reissue of an 80s kit.

Next up, a small Imperial fighter craft. Not the one you might be thinking of at first. Along with that, I'm also building another 1/144 WW2 plane, this time a P-39Q Airacobra. I can't really start safely on any big kits as we'll be moving to a new house soon, and it'll be easier to transport small kits in progress rather than a large one. I'm already worried how I'm gonna transport some of the bigger kits I finished, especially the Hercules...

Well, it didn't take all that long but the TIE Interceptor's done. A pic of the interior first as only little of it remains visible after constructions and there's a very nice amount of detail in there. EDIT: Also added two pictures taken without flash to show the actual colors.

Overall this is a nice little kit. Painting can be a bit of a hassle due to the fact that the solar panels are molded into the wings, so there's some fun masking to be done there. There's a lot of detail to be found and painted, but unfortunately the interior detail's no longer very visible after building. As this kit also originated as a Snap-Tite prepainted kit, there are some traces left of that during construction and a lot of parts already snap into place relatively easily, only needing the glue to hold them down properly. There's a single decal included for the front window, but it doesn't sit down very well due to the geometry of said window, so I ended up painting that instead.

Next up, a Soviet-era passenger plane. First time I'm building a Zvezda kit, so this should be interesting. The instructions look decent enough so far, if a little bit more compressed than Revell.

In other modelling news, Revell has some neat stuff coming up soon, including the Bandai Millennium Falcon. The article also implies that more Bandai kits are going to follow which is always good thing, as importing them from Japan can get costly.

Also, I'd like to invite people to post in here more rather than just read, it's kinda weird being one of the few posting.

Well, two weeks and I'm still the only one posting here... The Tupolev Tu-134A is now officially done, and it took less time than I thought. It's the first time I've ever built a Zvezda kit, and it makes me want to find a few more as it's very nicely done.

First two pictures are post-painting but pre-decals, you can see that the detail goes right into the engine turbines. I had to pick up some extra paint for this kit as there's a decent amount of gunmetal color used and Revell doesn't offer it in their assortment. Ended up picking Tamiya lacquer paint for this and the results are pretty dang great, even if the cleaning method's different than what I'm used to.

So, time for a short review: The kit overall is very nicely packed and presented, it offers both the 134-A as well as the 134-B3 versions both in Aeroflot livery. I ended up building the A version as I like the way the glass nose looks. Unfortunately, there is no interior detail whatsoever, not even a cockpit or anything which is kind of a bummer. On the other hand, it's a fairly rare subject with an interesting history (part of the design is taken straight from the Tu-16 heavy bomber) and despite the model having its first flight over 50 years ago, there are still 6 of them actively being used. The instructions have you pick between gear down without the stand, or gear up with the stand, but I combined both. The gear is nice but pretty fragile as I noticed during the build, and the stand provides a bit more safety as well as placement options with the limited space I have available at the moment. Instructions are clear, in both Russian and English with Zvezda's own colors being called out along with Humbrol equivalents, making it easy to find the right colors. There's a lot less steps than your average Revell kit, but so far I've noticed Revell just likes having a heck of a lot of tiny steps in their instructions. Some bits are tiny and fragile, but the end result is worth it and it's a fairly easy kit to build with some patience. The decals are all pretty great and align well with the body and the windows, even if the numbers on the top wing surface gave me a bit of trouble and required some minor cutting to get them to sit properly. Everything fits together very tightly, and even a slight layer of paint can cause fitting issues if you're not careful. I ended up trimming some things like the cockpit glass just to get it as cleanly in there as possible. Speaking of that, the transparent parts are kind of an oddity, as they are a lot more flexible than what I'm used to, and aren't nearly as fragile as the stuff other brands offer. Kinda nice, but also kinda weird.

Next up, I'm starting on a British-French attack aircraft in a very interesting livery. I mght actually have to put that one on hold as we're nearing the deadline for our house purchase, and we could very well be moving very soon as a result.

Don't worry, I know this hobby is a bit niche and not many people are interested in it on the forums. I don't even know if anyone even reads it to be honest, but for me it's nice to get all excited and post about things like this. It sometimes feels weird being the only one for quite some time though.

Sidenote: The Jaguar is in the final decal stages, I expect to finish it sometime this week. Getting all the decals on is proving to be quite a challenge though, as they all need to align fairly closely.

Took a bit longer than expected, but the Jaguar is done. It was a bit more work putting on the decals than expected, but the end result is worth it. The top of the plane gets pretty much entirely covered in orange leopardprint. Unfortunately not all of them always aligned as perfectly as I wanted, so there's some minor seams.

So, onto a short review: The kit goes well together pretty well, there's a decent amount of detailing going on and overall it's a pretty smooth build. There's some planning involved though, as the decals aren't really designed to go around everything, and you'll want to be able to manipulate the model as you decal it. As a result I put on the decals for the intakes last, giving me a good solid grip in the middle. I also ended up having to put a few small slices in some of the decals to make sure this ended up going well, and some parts were added after decalling. On the other hand, they're divided in such a way that they follow the part outlines making them easy to apply. There's some curving and overhang going on which will require a decent amount of decal softening fluid though, but a proper application of this will make the decals look painted on more than anything else. In total I spent three separate days on the decals themselves just to give them proper time to dry before starting on the next set.

As far as I can tell it's also a reasonably accurate representation of a Jaguar, and the airbrakes can be deployed for some additional detailing. Putting them in is a bit of a hassle though, as there are no natural angles for them to rest on requiring the installation of the hydraulics along with the brakes themselves. There's also a bunch of missiles included in the kit that aren't used for this build, just the drop tanks and rails are installed. The inside is detailed as well, but the thickness of the canopy prevents a good look at all the detail unless you build it in open position, and while the instrument panel has raised parts there's no decal included and the instructions just have you paint it black. I ended up drybrushing it with white just to show the outlines. Overall, a neat kit featuring a less common subject with a fun livery.

Next up, a trip to the east for a tiny version of a big plane: The MiG-31 Foxhound in 1:144. This one's roots as a kit go back to 1989, when details on what Soviet Russia was building were scarce, so it's not really all that accurate to the real deal. Still, it should be interesting to build.

Don't worry, I know this hobby is a bit niche and not many people are interested in it on the forums. I don't even know if anyone even reads it to be honest, but for me it's nice to get all excited and post about things like this. It sometimes feels weird being the only one for quite some time though.

Sidenote: The Jaguar is in the final decal stages, I expect to finish it sometime this week. Getting all the decals on is proving to be quite a challenge though, as they all need to align fairly closely.

I read it! I should post more because I like reading your posts about your building process and the end results. So you’re not posting to yourself, I’m just horrible at remembering to respond. I’m trying to finish up the Gundam Phenix Destroy Mode (not linked to Scalemates because they seem to be under maintenance). I’m trying to finish the detailing and the shields have these chain-link-type tails that are turning out to be a massive pain in the ass, so I keep taking breaks. They fall apart really easily and I’m trying to figure out how to fix that before I give up and just glue them into a static position.

The decals on the Jaguar came out really well. I’ve never seen a kit with that livery before. Maybe I should give an aircraft kit a try again. The last one I built was a B-17, but I can’t find what kit it was because A) it’s in storage and B) I built it like 14(?) years ago. But it was a fun, if challenging build.

Keep in mind that there's a lot of variation when it comes to aircraft kits, not just in scale and size but also in level of detail. The MiG-31 I am working on for example was based on old visual reports and doesn't have a cockpit at all, and other manufacturers have a habit of releasing "classic" kits in a new box. One example is Revell's Vampire: There's reboxings of an old mold but also a reissue of a more modern mold from another manufacturer, and if you don't do the research but just look at the subject matter you run a risk of buying something that might turn you off from plane building. The same applies to other subjects of course: Do your research.

P-39Q Airacobra in 1:144 scale, part of Revell's Micro Wings line, which is also a relatively older line originally. No cockpit, no internal details, but just tiny WW2-era planes in a variety of colors. I've built five of these so far and they're a fairly fun diversion.

A small plane I’ve had the “no research” thing bite me before, when I bought some Revell or Monogram tank kit at a yard sale simply because I’d never built a tank. It was a WWII era US tank but it was long enough ago that I can’t remember anything other than how much it frustrated me. There were a bunch of warped panels and I ended up giving the whole thing away to someone much more patient than I am with fixing those sorts of problems.

It's a neat little kit, but inaccurate due to its age. It was made in an era when Soviet planes were only known from spy photos, and as a result some of the detail and dimensions are off. The decals try to rectify this, and the instructions use a pretty great picture of what the actual plane looks like, but the kit shows its age. It also lacks a cockpit and just has you paint the part covered by the canopy in black. Fortunately, at this scale there's not much detail in there to begin with and most of the canopy gets painted. I'll have to get a picture of it next to the MiG-25 Foxbat I made quite a while ago, as the MiG-31 design was based on the MiG-25 and was intended as its replacement. Overall, a neat little kit which is put together relatively quickly. The paintjob is in my view a bit on the boring side though.

I've actually never encountered any warped sprues. I have however had to deal with damaged or ill-fitting parts, even out of the box. Depending on the part I either do my best to fix it (shaving it down or using filler) or replace it entirely with a similar or more accurate looking part. Hell, on the Black Hawk (Which is already almost done) I've had to replace a few missing bits already with stuff from my spare parts box. As I build more, I accumulate more spare parts, and they're also useful for paint testing.

For warped parts or sprues I've read that the best solution is hot water along with experimentation with unused parts or just bits of sprue to find the optimal temperature for straightening, as well as a method to hold the part in the correct shape as it cools down. Finding the right temperature depends highly on the plastic type though, and can vary not only between brands but even between models. My usual example is Revell here, as they release their kits in different colors of plastic, including the metallic-looking stuff, and they all have slightly varying temperatures. If you get a part too hot you risk melting it, so take it slow.

After over a year of putting it on hold, I finally finished the Black Hawk that I got from drunkill as a Secret Celestia present all the way back in 2016. During its construction Leo got a hold of the main rotor and it got damaged. I also got burned out on the kit a bit as a result of having to redo already-completed parts and having built too many helicopters with similar colors in a short period of time, and ever since then it's been in an incomplete status in a shoebox next to the rest of my stash. When trying to pick something to start on after the MiG, I just couldn't resist it anymore and resumed work on it, plowing through everything that needed to be done in two days.

As a result, it's kind of a hybrid in terms of build quality and I had to do some fixups, cleanups and other things, including creating some bits from scratch. It still looks pretty decent though, but I can tell the difference between my level at the time and where I am now. There are some parts that are still a bit shiny in the pictures as I touched up the paint right before taking these pictures, but they will no longer be visible once it dries.

I'm just glad I can finally remove it from my list of started kits. As for a brief review, I still remember part of the building process from back then so that helps. It's a pretty good kit, but kind of shows its age due to having raised panel lines for details as well some of them not matching the real helicopter. Everything still goes together pretty well, but the instructions need some work. In a style that I'm getting used to from Italeri there are incorrect details, as well as colors for some parts (such as the Hellfire missiles, which also have incorrect decals if I'm perfectly honest) not mentioned in the instructions whatsoever. Thankfully Revell also released this mold in their line, and the instructions there are a bit more comprehensive and complete. It offers three possible builds, but I went for the US version as it comes nicely equipped with a big stash of weapons. Options include being able to build it with open doors as well as including machine guns that can be added, so there is a decent amount of variation. I'd say it's worth a look if the subject interests you.

Next up, I'm building a rather unusual plane, with a few firsts for me. It's the 1:32 Revell Heinkel He-162A-2 Salamander. I bought this back in 2017 as a birthday present for myself and it's been in the stash ever since. This is the first time I'm building an aircraft in this massive scale (even if it's a relatively small one) and the amount of detail looks great. It's also the first German WW2 plane I'm building. I still have to decide on which of the two included colorschemes I'll be doing, but I will build it gear-down with the turbojet panels open as I cannot resist having some nice detailing visible rather than having it covered up. It might take a while to finish though, as I'm going on a vacation in less than two weeks and we're almost done buying a house.

EDIT: I just spent half an hour painting just one color of the kit, which is used for the wheel wells and panel insides. This is gonna be a bit more work than I expected, but a great excuse to start using my new fancy big brushes.

Slight update on the Salamander, as it's been a month since I started, even if I spent two weeks of that time on vacation: The cockpit is pretty much done, and it's almost time to assemble the fuselage halves. There's a heck of a lot of detail in this kit overall down to multiple decals in the cockpit, and the instructions have been slightly vague at some points causing me to have to repaint tiny bits of plastic. I'd have put the fuselage together today, if I hadn't noticed by chance that I made a mistake with the gun ports: I followed the paint instructions from the second colorscheme offered while I'd been planning to do the first. This meant I had to carefully remove the seat and the already-installed guns so I could fix this. Luckily I can just glue them back in tomorrow when the paint is dry and then touch up the insides where needed.

I could have also just gone for the second scheme but I kinda prefer the first one. Picked up some RLM 76 during my vacation too along with some other paints, so I won't have to mix that color myself, and it might come in handy for future German WW2 warplanes. It's also fun to do a whole lot of research to verify if my interpretation of the instructions is correct.